We hosted the 2006 Las Madres holiday party on Saturday. I think at the peak there were more people than at Thanksgiving, but thanks to the help of so many wonderful capable people, it was a relative breeze.
The party included two book exchanges, one for the 2006ers and one for the school-age kids. Many, many 2006 moms also have older "babies" who are in kindergarten; some one year younger, some older. The book exchange is popular!
Betsy and I are the only ones with yet another older child too, so Gina and Gabriel did their own book exchange. Both loved each other's books. It was all we could do to pry Gabriel off the couch later, reading his "Warriors" book.
At last year's holiday party, Julian totally hit it off with Elena, a girl his age whose younger sister, Megan, is the 2006er. Megan and Elena's mom Cris and I have become friends, and I was delighted to learn that Cris is from Rochester, NY!
Anyway, it'd been a year since Julian and Elena had seen each other, and they didn't really remember each other -- but they hit it off again just the same. They were even walking around holding hands, when they weren't running like crazy after each other. When most of the crowd was gone, they even let me get some photos.
Cris and I are already talking about what to name our first grandchild.
Though it was hectic at the party, and stressful beforehand only because I couldn't give it the attention I wanted, it was a lot of fun. I really like having so many kids happily running around the house -- that's what the house is for. They give the house life and purpose.
Today Dave had to work, so I had the three at home myself today. A lazy day after such a busy one yesterday, or it tried to be. After slapping together a hasty breakfast, I went back to sleep for a while before Dave left for work. I fell into a deep sleep, awoken by an exceedingly irritating new game of Julian and Katrina's that involves her bursting out screeches at the top of her lungs. I called Dave on his iPhone (easier than hollering down the stairs!) to apologize for oversleeping and to tell him to go to work -- but he told me he was already at work and hadn't wanted to wake me to tell me (figuring correctly that the kids would take care of that). Well, wow! The kids let me sleep for a good hour and a half. I'm liking this phase of life. Now if we can just get past the tantrums.
I could have stayed at home all day, but I knew that the kids had to get out. We took a short trip to the library, to return old books and get new ones. This was great; the boys were completely silent absorbed in their new books for two hours. Katrina played very happily, not being bugged by brothers for once.
Time to decorate our tree! They'd really been looking forward to doing this, and this time, Katrina got in on the action. She caught on to the concept of hooking things on the tree right away. They all had a great time. This is what Christmas is about!
Santa baby!
12/13/09
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